www.surgicalneurologyint.com Surgical Neurology International Editor-in-Chief: Nancy E. Epstein, MD, Clinical Professor of Neurological Surgery, School of Medicine, State U. of NY at Stony Brook. SNI: Socioeconomics, Politics, and Medicine Editor James A Ausman, MD, PhD University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA Open Access Book Review e neurobiology of learning and memory – as related in the memoirs of Eric R. Kandel Miguel A. Faria Clinical Professor of Surgery (Neurosurgery, ret.) and Adjunct Professor of Medical History (ret.), Mercer University School of Medicine, United States. E-mail: *Miguel A. Faria - [email protected] Author : Eric R. Kandel Published by : W.W. Norton & Co., New York, NY, USA Price : $19.95 ISBN-13 : 978-0393329377 ISBN-10 : 9780393329377 Year : 2006 *Corresponding author: Miguel A. Faria, MD Clinical Professor of Surgery (Neurosurgery, ret.) and Adjunct Professor of Medical History (ret.), Mercer University School of Medicine, United States. [email protected] is magnificent tome by Eric R. Kandel, M.D., a psychoanalyst and neuroscience researcher, Received : 22 July 2020 is both a delightful autobiography and a scrupulously detailed history of the neurobiology of Accepted : 22 July 2020 learning and memory, a relatively new area of neuroscience that Kandel refers to as a “new [7] Published : 15 August 2020 science of mind.” His own fundamental work in this area made him a recipient of a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2000, which he shared with two other distinguished investigators, DOI Drs. Arvid Carlsson (for elucidating the effects of dopamine in Parkinson’s disease) and Paul 10.25259/SNI_458_2020 Greengard (for the discovery of signal transduction in neurons). Quick Response Code: ESCAPING FROM AUSTRIA AND THE NAZIS From the outset in the first chapter of his book, Kandel reminds us that the study of memory is fascinating and tells us that “remembering the past is a form of mental time travel.” Indeed it is. Kandel was born in Vienna, Austria, but left the country as a child (age 9) with his family in 1938 to escape the Nazi juggernaut on the heels of Germany’s Anschluss with Austria (March 12, 1938). e Kandels were the fortunate ones – a Jewish family that managed to escape together before the Holocaust and reach safety and freedom in America. Sadly, Kandel witnessed the enthusiastic reception by which the annexation of Austria was accomplished, and this left him with a disturbing impression as a child, poignant memories he never forgot, but that did not squelch his love for Vienna as an artistic and cosmopolitan city, where music and the arts is is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. ©2020 Published by Scientific Scholar on behalf of Surgical Neurology International Surgical Neurology International • 2020 • 11(252) | 1 Faria: The neurobiology of learning and memory — as related in the memoirs of Eric R. Kandel had flourished to a pinnacle in European civilization. e as a resident in psychiatry. However, before we can discuss Kandels might have lost their home and possessions, but Kandel’s specific contributions, we need to do as he did in his they maintained a lust for life, the arts, and learning. Kandel’s book and review all of the historical developments that led nostalgia for his old country Austria and urbane Vienna, is to the zenith of his accomplishments. Much of this material palpable in his writing. His love for science in the footsteps of would serve as an extended review or refresher course to the humanities (his first love) never left him, but only grew in many neurologists and neurosurgeons reading Surgical the United States. And so, Austria’s loss was to be America’s Neurology International (SNI). But for others, particularly gain. However, it was by chance that Kandel dedicated his young investigators, it may serve as a starting point for life to medical science, particularly research in neurobiology. study and research in the area of learning and memory in roughout his life, Kandel and his wife Denise imbibed the neurobiology. arts and had a cosmopolitan taste for music and opera. Kandel’s personal experiences are inextricably entwined with THE GIANTS IN NEUROSCIENCE WHO PAVED learning and research in neuroscience. It is not surprising that THE WAY in addition to writing books and textbooks on the subject, he On the one hand, the discovery of classical conditioning, also chose to write his autobiography as a vehicle to inform habituation, and sensitization in learning by the physiologist us about his search for the neurobiology of memory, along Ivan Pavlov (1894–1936; Nobel Prize winner in Physiology the way helping develop what he calls the “science of mind,” or Medicine, 1904) and B.F. Skinner’s school of behaviorism establishing the neural, physiological, biochemical, and provided an initial impetus for Kandel’s research. On molecular basis for the clinical specialization of neurology the other hand, Kandel had also been exposed to clinical and neuropsychiatry. psychiatry, the theory of the unconscious, psychological Kandel scrupulously gives credit where credit is due in his determinism, and other aspects of psychoanalysis from detailed history of the science of mind as it pertains directly close family friends and later in his training. How he would to his subject matter – the neurobiology of learning and reconcile the two areas of interest would occupy his thoughts memory. With so much credit spread around at times, we for several years during medical school and psychiatric wonder how he was chosen for the Nobel Prize from the training. myriad of colleagues who contributed so many pieces to the After a brief introduction to behavioral psychology, we puzzle of memory function. Indeed, several other colleagues enter the realm of neurobiology. Here Kandel introduces the with whom he worked for over half a century also received greatest neuroscientist of all times, Santiago Ramón y Cajal Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine or in Chemistry. (1852–1934; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1906), So Kandel worked in a firmament of stars. He shared his the Spanish neuroanatomist, who armed with his elegant Nobel Prize with two other scientists he knew well. Given the silver staining method borrowed from his technically gifted voluminous amount of material in this tome, it is necessary professional rival Camillo Golgi, discovered the neuron and to provide an extended summary – not only of Kandel’s own its central role in the human brain. Cajal took neuroanatomy seminal research in neurobiology but also recount the works and neurophysiology to a zenith, deducing his Four of others in whom he relied for his contribution – to bring the Principles of the Neuronal Organization as follows: reader up to date on what we know about the neurobiology 1. In the nerve cell, the neuron is the fundamental unit of learning and memory. both in the structure and function of the nervous system Kandel praises American education in New York in the 1940s – the neuron doctrine. and has fond memories of the Hebrew day school, Yeshivah 2. Neurons connect with one another with their special of Flatbush, which “offered secular classes in English and processes, from axons of one cell to the dendrites of religious study in Hebrew, both on a highly demanding level” another. Brain cells have a pre synaptic terminal in (p. 34). us, this gifted refugee from Austria learned and the axon, and through the synaptic cleft, or synapse, became fluent in Hebrew as well as English. connects to the postsynaptic site of the dendrite of After a brief affair with the humanities, European history, and another. German literature, Kandel’s interest switched to psychiatry 3. Neurons have specific connections with one another – and neuroscience while he was still at Harvard University. He maintaining connection specificity. entered medical school at New York University in 1951 with 4. Neural messages travel in only one direction – i.e., the intention of becoming a psychoanalyst. Kandel immersed unidirectional transmission – referred to as dynamic himself in the study of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic polarization (p. 64-66). theories, and hoped to learn the biological basis for psychiatry In time, action potentials in the neuronal membrane, as well as neurology. is path took him to neuroscience the chemical theory of synaptic transmission through research, which he conducted both as a medical student and neurotransmitters between neurons, would be added to Surgical Neurology International • 2020 • 11(252) | 2 Faria: The neurobiology of learning and memory — as related in the memoirs of Eric R. Kandel Cajal’s Four Principles through the contribution of other stimulus reduces the cell’s resting membrane potential, and if gifted investigators who followed in his wake. Kandel, strong enough, it causes the normally closed voltage-gated Na therefore, stood on the shoulders of giants. e following channel to open, Na rushes into the cell, creating a momentary background material is paraphrased, summarized, or surge in positive charge – the membrane potential is altered extracted from Kandel’s book, pages 71-92, as noted in the from −70 mV to +40 mV. After a split second, the voltage-gated text: K+ channel opens briefly with outflow of K+ producing the Charles Sherrington (1857–1952) studied the mechanism of downstroke of the action potential, and returning the resting the neural reflex and found that neurons could be inhibited membrane potential to its original voltage of −70 mV. as well as excited, and the integration (summation) of signals For their formulation of the ionic hypothesis and the discovery determines the final action.